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PUMP 201081
By Richard, M. Weintraub
Approved For Release 2000 3/11 : CIA
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 1
-Pakistan People's Party leader
Benazir Bhutto was named prime
: minister tonight, making the 35-
year-old daughter of the late prime
: minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto one of
the youngest leaders of a major
country and the only woman to head
a modern Islamic state.
: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, in à
nationally televised address, praised
Bhutto as a "young, educated, cul-
tured and talented lady. She is en-
dowed with the best of leadership
qualities and statesmanlike vision.".
Immediately after : announcing
the selection of Bhutto, Ishaq Khan
revoked the state of emergency
declared after the death of presi-
dent Mohammed ·Zia ul-Haq in a
plane crash on Aug. 17 and dis-
banded the emergency council that
was formed to help run the country.
The caretaker. Cabinet named by
Zia after he ousted the government
of prime minister Mohammed Khan
Junejo on May 29 also was dissolved,
giving. Bhutto a clear field to form
her own government and take over
the running of the country. She is to
be sworn in to office on Friday.
Supporters of Bhutto celebrated
here and elsewhere across the
country. Cars and motorcycles fly-
ing the flag of her party honked
their horns in the crowded streets
of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, The
Associated Press reported, and in'
Karachi, Bhutto's home city, tens of
thousands of celebrants jammed the
streets of the working-class Lyari
neighborhood tonight.
As she takes office, Bhutto faces
major challenges at home and
abroad. She must approve a new
budget by mid-December that must
answer stringent demands by the
International Monetary Fund in or-
der for Pakistan to qualify for much-
needed assistance for its serious
balance-of-payments situation.
Abroad, the Feb, 15 deadline for
withdrawal of Soviet troops from
Afghanistan presents her with ma-
jor decisions regarding her coun-
ernment in Kabul and the return of
some 3 million Afghan refugees in
Pakiet
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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Benazir Bhutto, 35, is the first woman to be named to lead a Moslem nation.
Soviet troops from Afghanistan and
remove the Soviet-backed govern-
ment in Kabul. She has had close
contacts with U.S. officials on these
issues and others, leaving U.S. dip-
lomats generally supportive of the
prospect of a Bhutto-led govern-
ment.
In Washington, the White House
said, President Reagan sent Bhutto
a letter of congratulations saying
that the United States was "encour-
aged by this renewed commitment
in Pakistan to constitutional proce-
dures, and looked forward to close,
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government.
Ishaq Khan, at 73, is more than
double the age of the prime minis-
overshadowed Pakistani politics
ever since.
Ishaq Khan is now rumored to be
a favored candidate for a full term
as president in the election sched-
uled for Dec. 12. The relationship
between the two will be crucial to
the country's future.
Ishaq Khan became president
upon Zia's death, opening the way
for unfettered elections to restore
democratic rule to Pakistan for the
first time in more than a decade.
In his address today, he said the
people of Pakistan had shown a
responsibility and
haz 00-emocratic prin-
ciples . .. despite the lack of dem-
ocratic practices in the political life